heating costs

matt verzola · December 2007

i've been hunting for a new place in the heights, and i looked at a nice brownstone on sterling between washington and underhill. i'd be renting the second floor and everything is currently being redone/repainted/whole 9.

in addition to the rent, i'd be paying for the heat, which is a surprise to me (i'm used to it being included in the rent). i'd have my own boiler in the basement, my own thermostat, and i'd be paying keyspan.

i'm trying to gauge what i can expect for monthly expenses. anyone have any idea what kind of costs i'm looking at? it's a one bedroom, entire second floor with windows at the front and rear. i don't know the square footage yet.

general estimates will suffice

thanks!

stacey · December 2007

I dont know about a single floor but I heat a 3 floor house and while in the summer my bill is about $30-40 a month which would probably be a little less without my gas dryer. In the winter it can be anywhere from $300 a month on milder months and close to $800-$900 when its very, very cold. After my first year I did a level billing plan which takes one year's worth of bills and evens them out to 12 equal payments. Whatever you overpaid at the end of the year they will credit towards next year's payments.

Good luck

kella_v · December 2007

Hey, I'm pretty sure that if you're renting in NYC, it's illegal for the landlord to make you pay for heat.

http://www.housingnyc.com/html/resources/dhcr/dhcr15.html

matt verzola · December 2007

now that's what i like to hear! little confused on how that will work with my thermostat...since i could jack up the heat all day and figuratively flip my landlord the bird.

stacey · December 2007

kella_v wrote: Hey, I'm pretty sure that if you're renting in NYC, it's illegal for the landlord to make you pay for heat.

http://www.housingnyc.com/html/resources/dhcr/dhcr15.html

I don't see where it says that in the link you provided.

kella_v · December 2007

"By law, building owners must provide all tenants with the following levels of heat and hot water:

Heat (During the heating season, October 1 through May 31)

* Between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., heat must register at least 68 degrees Fahrenheit when the outside temperature falls below 55 degrees;

* Between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., heat must register at least 55 degrees Fahrenheit when the outside temperature falls below 40 degrees."

matt verzola · December 2007

i'm still not sure how that will work if i have a thermostat...

stacey · December 2007

kella_v wrote: "By law, building owners must provide all tenants with the following levels of heat and hot water:

Heat (During the heating season, October 1 through May 31)

* Between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., heat must register at least 68 degrees Fahrenheit when the outside temperature falls below 55 degrees;

* Between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., heat must register at least 55 degrees Fahrenheit when the outside temperature falls below 40 degrees."

I think that is only if the landlord is the only one able to control the thermostat/heat. Matt will be able to control the heat himself.

kella_v · December 2007

Hey, it's a rental. I would at least look into it.

matt verzola · December 2007

i'm doing a lot of googling and i can't find much info one way or the other. one new york times article (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9900EED81331F937A35756C0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=5) says:

The tenants accused him of not providing heat; Wolf said he had been denied heat in his apartment because the tenants had broken the boiler by setting the thermostat at 90 degrees.

this would suggest that tenants are entitled to heat whether they set it themselves or not. i really want to believe that, ha

where are the lawyers on this forum!

MOD · December 2007

I agree with Stacy. My 4 floor building has one common area thermostat that technically everyone has access to, but that's controls all floors with one boiler/meter. So the landlord is paying the heating. But if I had my personal boiler and meter then I would pay. It would also mean that the rent probably be a little less to sell a new tenant on the place.

armchair_warrior · December 2007

if you have control of the heating you pay for it. if you don't have control and its the same control for all the units in the building landlord pays for it.

wirenut · December 2007

Mamacita and Armchair are right.

I can't cite the rule, but thousands of apartments are set up this way and it is growing. They can't be all illegal.

The landllord is still responsible to keep the heating equipment in good repair. If the boiler for your apartment breaks, the LL has to fix it not you, but you pay the fuel bill. Almost all set ups like this are gas-hotwater systems. You can't do it with steam heat or oil.

wirenut · December 2007

On the cost issue

at current prices,
no extra insulation in the attic,
in an avergae winter,
if you set the thermostat at a reasonable level = 68 to 70 when home and lower when not at home (not 85 so you can walk around naked)

a 3 story brownstone would run about $5,000.00 per year for the whole building

so one apartment will run about $1600 per year.

The top floor will cost more because a building looses most of its heat through the roof.

jml · December 2007

5k sounds a bit high. I heat a 4story brownstone to 68 in the day, and 64 at night. My costs run about 2,500 a year. Your milage may vary, of course.

whyfi · December 2007

I live on an upper floor (not a brownstone) with about 900sq ft and we usually get heating bills somewhere around 200-300 every other month in the winter... and this is after sealing our windows, adding a boiler insulation blanket (it gets cold in the basement) and setting the thermostat to lower the temps when we're at work and when we're sleeping.

heating costs

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